I had to stay in Bámbara several days, not at all for my own comfort, as I continually ran the risk of being recognised and identified, having been known as a Christian at the short distance of a few days’ journey from here. Nothing but the scanty intercourse which is kept up in this region made such a sudden change of character possible, for as yet I had nobody to protect me. But my friend El Waláti, whose relation with the inhabitants of this place was of a peculiar character, derived the sole benefit from our stay. He had married here, four years previously, a rich wife, and had absconded with all her property: besides having seriously offended the powerful Tárki chief Somki. Having thus made himself so obnoxious to them, he would not have been able to enter the place again, if he had not found an opportunity of enriching himself at my expense and enjoying the protection of my company. However, it was only by degrees that I became acquainted with all these circumstances, while I had to bear silently all the intrigues of this man, my only object being to reach safely in his company the town of Timbúktu; but it was evident enough that he was continually wavering, whether it was not more profitable for him to deliver me into the hands of the Fúlbe, as he knew well that in the town of Dár-e’-Salám, which was only thirty miles distant, there was a powerful governor, under the ruler of Másina, and himself a son of Mohammed Lebbo, who, at the first intelligence of my real character, would have cut short all my proceedings, and, in the most favourable case, would have sent me direct to his liege lord and nephew in Hamda-Alláhi.